In the production of fluidically attenuated glass filaments, the need to improve process efficiency and controllability has been ever present. Particularly important is the need to produce a uniform mass flow having a high attenuative force while minimizing the operating expense of doing so.
There have been a number of attempts to produce such systems. For example, Russian Pat. No. 371,178 discloses the use of a Laval nozzle to attenuate the streams of molten glass into filaments. German Pat. No. 848,990 discloses a system for adjusting the blowers relative to each other to produce maximized operating conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 2,224,466 discloses the use of a skirted blower for the production of staple filaments.